VANCOUVER COMMUNITY NETWORK ASSOCIATION
Minutes of Board Meeting
April 23, 1996
Present: Margaret Coates (Chair), Larry Kuehn (Secretary), George
Lindholm, Godwin Chan, Andrey Federoff, Penny Goldsmith, Greg Sturk, Neil
K. Guy.
Absent: Ross Penner, Lorne Gray, Stephanie Fletcher, Vic Vaivads,
Jennifer Higgins-Ingham, Nicholas Fong.
1. The meeting was called to order at 7:05.
2. M/S/C. The agenda was adopted as printed.
3. M/S/C. That the minutes of March 19, 1996 board meeting be approved.
4. Business arising from the minutes:
A. Site relocation. The move to the VPL is scheduled for mid-May.
B. "On-line Education Society." The work is ongoing for creating an
educational society which would have charitable tax status.
C. Power-Up Conference. Penny Goldsmith and Jason Currell are doing
workshops and a display is being developed for the VCN table.
5. New Business:
A. Penny Goldsmith is the VCN representative on the B.C. Freenet
Association. She will report to the next meeting on issues related to the
Association.
B. Finance Report.
Andrey Federoff presented a projected cashflow or the year.
There are about 8,000 active accounts on VCN at this time. The amount
raised from individuals and groups in memberships and donations during the
past year has been about $50,000, or about $6.35 per user on average. The
current level of financing required for a year at a minimum staffing and
operations level is about $120,000; this would require an average of $15.00
per user. Outside sources of grants cannot be depended on for supporting
the service, so it is important to reach members and users with the message
that we need financial support in order to maintain the service.
Andrey presented a proposal for revitalizing the committees of the VCN and
it was agreed to call a special board meeting to talk about where we think
the VCN should be going and how to have an active volunteer and member
support system to make it a reality.
Margaret told the meeting that the final report has been submitted to Human
Resoures Development Canada (HDRC) on the project they funded . HDRC will
now make the final payments from the "holdback" to the VCN.
6. Next meetings:
NOTE: SPECIAL BOARD MEETING, Tuesday, May 7 from 7 to 9 p.m. at 411 Dunsmuir.
This meeting is to discuss future directions, revitalization of committees
and financing the Vancouver Community Network.
Regular board meeting: May 21 from 7 to 9 at 411 Dunsmuir.